Worst Canned Foods

Canned juice

The rule is simple for juice: Get it fresh. There’s no excuse for buying it canned. It’s no more convenient to squeeze an orange than it is to crack a can. One variety we looked at contained 20 teaspoons of sugar and was over 90% sugar syrup and less than 5% juice. There is no RDI for sugar, as the recommended daily intake is reserved only for those foods, nutrients and vitamins necessary in your diet. Fruit juices are often deceptive. You think you’re getting a healthy hit when really you’re taking in twice as much sugar as you’d find in a can of Coke. Making smoothies and juices at home is simple and delicious. And with a smoothie, you get the added benefit of the fibers from the fruit (try some of these healthy smoothies).

Canned meat food product

If "partially defatted cooked pork fatty tissue" on the ingredients list doesn’t set alarm bells off, then be our guest and eat away. More often than not, canned meat products are made from mechanically recovered bits (i.e. meat blasted from carcasses after all the more acceptable bits have been taken off). Admittedly, there are some good parts if you don’t mind a bit of offal (hearts, for example), but that’s like buying a plane ticket for the free pretzels. Also, preserving meat like this takes quite a few chemical preservatives including nitrates, which have been linked to cancer. If the label didn’t put you off, hopefully that will.

Canned ravioli

Italian comfort food at its best, ravioli turns into quite the different beast when it’s trapped in a metal tube. A can of a famous brand of tinned beef ravioli packs a whopping punch of sodium alongside saturated fats while containing barely any of the good things. The beef only provides a minute amount of your RDI of iron, and very few other vitamins or minerals are present. Another thing to be wary of is the fact that ravioli is generally canned in tomato sauce – and unless you’re buying an expensive brand, you’ll end up with one packed with sugar and other preservatives. If you’re looking for a quick, simple pasta dinner, soften garlic and chili in a little olive oil, toss it with your cooked spaghetti and grate some Parmesan over it. It won’t be packed with nutrition, but at least you know what you aren’t putting in. A tin of tomatoes will elevate this to a speedy, healthy supper. Just toss some raw baby spinach in at the last minute for an extra hit of iron.